One of the first things we look at when doing a SQL Server Assessment (Health Check) is the SQL Server version and patch level. We don’t stop there, of course. We check a ton of other things that can affect the SQL Server’s performance, its security, and its reliability. But we start with the version…
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If your company uses SQL Server Reporting Services as part of it reporting infrastructure, you’ve probably been asked “What SSRS reports does this user subscribe to?” Often that’s due to a job or role change in the company. Sally is leaving the department and Jonathan is taking over her responsibilities. All of Sally’s reports now…
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SQL Server. Many business depend on it. But how can you tell if your SQL Server is healthy? It’s not always obvious. SQL Server can be pretty forgiving in many ways, until it’s not. And that can put your performance and even your data at risk. The right configuration settings are critical. Unfortunately, it’s easy…
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“What’s the difference in SQL Server FCIs and AGs?” That question comes up frequently when talking High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HADR). It’s especially important when “Everything stops and people can’t do their jobs if SQL Server is unavailable.” There are a lot of how-to articles on the internet for setting up Always On Failover…
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You’ve manually started DBCC CHECKDB to verify the integrity of a database. It churns. And churns. You check the Messages tab on Management Studio. Nothing. So, you start to wonder: Just how much longer will CHECKDB take to complete? A couple of minutes? A couple of hours? Who knows? How long will DBCC CHECKDB take?…
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If a user is a member of db_datareader, which grants access to a table, and db_denydatareader, which denies access to a table, which role will take precedent? That’s the question someone on LinkedIn recently posted in the SQL Server Administrators group recently. Here’s a link to the question. The LinkedIn poster essentially wanted to know…
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Backup and restore? Log shipping? Maybe Failover Clustered Instances or Availability Groups can be used? Oh, what about Azure or another cloud provider? Some data centers offer “push button DR,” will that work? There are so many options. Where should we start with Disaster Recovery for our SQL Server? The point of Disaster Recovery Disasters…
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“I want to learn [a technology]. Where should I start?” Since I’ve spent the last 25 year working with SQL Server (no exaggeration, see footnote), the question is usually about learning SQL Server. Sometimes it’s about learning related technologies such as data analytics and visualization, scripting languages such as Python or PowerShell, or the burgeoning…
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The call comes in. “Something’s happened. We need to restore the production database. Can you do it? And how long will it take?” No DBA wants to receive that call but, frankly, answering those calls and the ensuing questions are part of a DBA’s job. And there’s no better way to know that you can,…
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Some things are scary. Other things are dangerous. And in SQL Server, you can have both scary and dangerous at the same time. Scary, that we can deal with. But dangerous, particularly things that are deceptively dangerous, is bad. Scary things Let’s start with scary. Some things give us pause. We see them, think about…
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